Alma

[Bogsucker]

Fished a couple hours this morning and did fairly well on the sand-pike up to 17", only one small walleye. Caught them drifting minnows with a chartreuse floater. Few others out fishing. No ducks flying either.

[Down to Earth]

First off I need to thank my fellow FM'ers who helped make my trip a success today. I ended up fishing Alma for about 5 hours today with, what I feel, was very good success. Overall I'd say around 30+fish came to the boat today with a few misses thrown in as well. I got to the dam a little after 8 and right off the bat picked up a 16" walleye. A few minutes later one at 14". Both of these came near the Wisconsin side up near the dam. Things died down and I started moving around and fishing the whole length of the dam. Finally developed a good pattern, where I'd boat up near the western most white bouy and then drift down a ways and just repeat. Most of my success came in this area. Of all the fish only 3 were walleyes and the rest were sauger. I did catch one 15" sauger that I brought home with the 16" walleye for dinner. The majority of the saugers ran in the 10-13" size range with a couple that were just under 15" that I returned to the water, including one just under at 14 7/8. I belly hooked one as well that went right back.

I used what Crappie Tom described as the Debuque set up; 3/8 chart. jig on a three way with a colored hook & minnow trailed off on the other way. All but the one I belly hooked and one other sauger came on the minnow. They didn't care much for the ring worms today, but did get one on a firetiger walleye flavored 3"Powerbait grub. I tried some hair for a little bit, but soon switched back to the Debuque with more success.

One question, Do saugers typically run smaller than walleyes? Of the 3 eye's I caught the smallest was 13.5", while the as I mentioned the saugers were predominantly in the 10-13 range.

Overall it was a great trip. Thanks to those who suggested Alma over Red Wing. I didn't have to deal with hardly any boats. For most of the morning one 1 or 2 other boats were out there. As more boats came out they congregated over near the lock on the Wisconsin side working that area, but by time they all came I had my pattern right in the middle of the dam going and had the area pretty much to myself. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get back again sometime. Thank you again.